Loving Neighbor
“Then a despised Samaritan came along, and when he saw the man, he felt compassion for him.”
“Now which of these three would you say was a neighbor to the man who was attacked by bandits?” Jesus asked.
The man replied, “The one who showed him mercy.”
Then Jesus said, “Yes, now go and do the same.”
-Luke 10:33, 36, 37 (NLT)
“Jesus does not supply information as to whom one should help; failure to keep the commandment springs not from lack of information but from lack of love. It was not fresh knowledge that the lawyer needed, but a new heart- in plain English, conversion.” -I. Howard Marshall
“The lawyer wanted a rule or set of rules that he could keep and so merit eternal life. Jesus is telling him that eternal life is not a matter of keeping rules at all. To live in love is to live the life of the kingdom of God.” -Leon Morris
“Rather than asking again, Who is my neighbor? Jesus inquires, Who acted as a neighbor?” -Joel B. Green
Loving neighbor can be understood, where the word loving is a verb. This would then indicate that you are to love your neighbor, which is a fine understanding of Luke 10:25-37. What is in fact more difficult, and more to Jesus’ point is that you and I are to be a loving neighbor, where the word loving is a noun. We are to be loving to everyone because, everyone is in need of a neighbor as Jesus’ parable relates. To repeat a line from the message, we need to stop asking, “Who is my neighbor?” and instead ask, “Who needs a neighbor?” What might be helpful to us then as we think more about being a loving neighbor, is some sharper definition around the key words in the passage. There are two very important words, compassion and mercy. Here are links to see some Biblical definitions and other references to each of these words in the original Greek.
I also found a video that was very helpful in understanding the summary of the law that is given by the expert in the law. You can view it here.
Finally, some of you asked for the link to the Bless Every Home website, so that you can sign up to start praying for your nieghbors by name. Here you go.
Blog Bonus: Here is a video of the US Surgeon General, explaining about the epidemic of loneliness and isolation our nation is facing. I am fascinated by how much of what he suggests for remediation of this crisis lines up directly with what Jesus calls us to as loving neighbors.